#(they randomly assigned characters at the beginning and you played whoever you got from match to match)

[elfindreams]

life has been weird and fucky these past few weeks for reasons I don’t feel like mentioning online but uhhhh hey on the plus side, I won a casual-ish Unmatched tournament at Pax this weekend! I wasn’t even going to participate but a bunch of people signed up and didn’t show so there were openings for replacement players and I got peer-pressured into it, lol.

[demigodofhoolemere]

Had a very... interesting dream? One of those dreams that feels like you’re watching an incredibly detailed movie that actually has a semi-cohesive plot to it.

Scott Lang somehow ended up in space (I think John Crichton style through a wormhole?) and got stuck on this planet where people trapped living on a space station (not floating in space, mind you - there was a planet outside, but no one lived out there) are forced to gamble with powerful crystals, and they’re playing it at the top of this incredibly high up shaft (picture what Luke falls down in Empire Strikes Back, just much much worse) and the seats and game board are alarmingly close to the edge, and if their randomly chosen opponent has the more powerful crystal, they get thrown down this shaft and I assume killed. The people who made it this far in the "game" (apparently you have to "play" other levels to get here) consider each other to be brothers and sisters, since they’re all stuck in the same horrific boat. Even though they were terrified, whoever had the power to make them do this had somehow drilled it into the whole station's heads that this was an honorable way to live and die and that they should be grateful. One of the players was Jaimie Alexander's character in Blindspot even though I don’t watch that show, and she was apparently the champion who had been here the longest and the only one who didn’t look properly afraid.

Scott was somehow trapped into playing this final round with the competition, even though he’d never been here before and had no idea how to play. He realized that some of the crystals were actually Infinity Stones and was shocked that people were simply using them like poker chips. By sheer luck he made it quite far, outliving a few people who plummeted down the drop, which rightly horrified him both from the barbarism and the height. I think my fear of heights was given to him, because my unconscious felt extremely dizzy and sick looking down through Scott's eyes, which made him almost throw up and eventually he outright had to leave the table because he felt sick from watching people fall down that and he was afraid he would be next. Apparently it's a serious crime to interrupt this "game", and Scott had just committed a horrible offense by leaving the table to stand farther from the edge to breathe, and security was called to take him away and kill him, so he was forced to run all through the station looking for an escape. I think since he had interrupted the "game", they had to stop playing, so everyone else got to quickly return to their assigned living quarters and survive another day (I got the impression they were too afraid to attempt escape).

Scott ended up running into Hope, who apparently had gone missing quite some time ago and it turned out she’d been stuck here the whole time and she’d gotten very far in this horrible "game". She was so stuck in the mindset of surviving this lifestyle that she wasn't so sure she wanted to try to escape, but Scott could see what had happened to her and refused to let her stay here where she’d only get messed up even worse over time and eventually killed in a death match, so he kept dragging her along with him, and she protested a little but never tried to fight him or really stop him.

It was easy to get lost in the halls because they all looked basically the same. Sometimes they’d have to run through a crowd, and once they went past a celebrity couple who were being surrounded by reporters (I think they were endorsing this place for some reason). After a lot of running, they were being caught up to, so they just opened a random door and hid inside. Weirdly enough, Tara Lewis from Criminal Minds was there, with a white woman that she said was her mother (though I'm not sure she was even older than Tara so who knows how that’s possible even through adoption). For some reason Scott and Hope already knew Tara from Earth and were surprised to see their friend, and for some reason that made sense to me at the time (like 'oh yeah of course they know Tara', as if they’re on CM or something). Tara was uncharacteristically nonchalant about the whole thing, and gave them directions for escaping but didn’t seem to care at all about leaving herself. Hope was worried about security being in the halls and finding them as soon as they left the room, but Scott had a plan: dress up like that celebrity couple, so even if they get mobbed by reporters or fans, they’d go unnoticed by the people chasing them. So very convenient that they had similar hair and looks, and even more incredibly convenient that Tara somehow had the same exact sparkly red hats, red feather boas, and dark sunglasses on hand to help them do this. They did have to wade through crowds, but they evaded detection by security, so somehow this plan actually worked.

Scott and Hope found some shuttlecrafts and were able to fly out to the planet, and Scott put the ship on autopilot to ask Hope some questions about what had happened to her and why she seemed reluctant to leave and go home. Didn’t she miss Earth, didn’t she miss her father? She said she missed her sister. Scott was confused because she doesn’t have a sister, but he realized she meant one of the other women forced to play the "game", and that she felt bad about leaving her.

The ship stopped outside of a glittery cave of purple crystals, and there was a giant screen mounted into the rock, now playing a video of Yondu spouting some propaganda about the crystals (I assume he got paid to do that). Apparently this was an old training ground, even though the rules weren’t even remotely the same as those that I saw before, and now that Scott and Hope were here they had no choice but to play (luckily there was no chasm to be thrown into and they weren’t pitted against each other, it was some sort of team-building thing). They had a certain amount of time to get as many crystals out of the rock as they could, but there were only certain ones that they COULD get out, others were either decoys or you had to twist them a particular way in a particular sequence in order to get another crystal to be released.

They took turns twisting the crystals, and were able to get maybe 4 out of the rock before time was running out and some sort of dangerous robotic arm started to come after them. Conveniently there was a door in the side of the cave that they could hide in, and inconveniently that door somehow led them right back to the center of the space station where they were faced with that chasm. There must have been some old alarm that they’d set off, because lights were flashing and people were able to exit their rooms in a panic and crystals were flying everywhere. Security was coming straight for them, and the only option was to jump. Scott was completely mortified but Hope had noticed that there were crystals literally hovering in the air, meaning that the gravity controls had malfunctioned and they could jump without falling to their deaths. They leapt off of the platform and into the air among the levitating crystals, one of which Scott took note of as being an Infinity Stone but he wasn't able to grab it. They floated to the other side of the shaft and reached another door to escape. By dream logic, another shuttlecraft was waiting for them and made it easy for them to get away again.

Hope flew the craft while Scott found a space equivalent of an iPad sitting around so he picked it up and started looking through it, but only found commercials that Peter Quill had apparently done in the past (first Yondu, now him, I’m beginning to think the Ravagers just had a TV deal at some point in time), though he looked more like Chris Pratt as Andy in Parks and Rec than as Peter. I saw something with him trying to take care of a baby, there was some sort of hand commercial (not modeling, they were trying to advertise hands, and not even artificial ones - what kind of business was this?!) and I specifically remember Peter singing the jingle, "Hands! That’s what I’m talking 'bout! Hands!", and then it’s like my brain was giving me a commercial for what was gonna happen next in the dream because there was a short snippet of Peter talking to Scott and saying he hopes Earth doesn’t get destroyed because we have paper and Josh Hutcherson. That’s the last thing I remember.

[entergamingxp]

Crucible Hands-On Preview — Amazon Enters the Hero Shooter Warzone

May 19, 2020 9:00 AM EST

Crucible, Relentless Studios’ first title, releases tomorrow and I got a hands-on look at the game a bit early.

A new competitor joins free-to-play competitive shooter landscape this week with Relentless Studio’s Crucible. Last week, I got the chance to try out the game with members of the development team and other members of the media. Walking away from the event, I was left with cautious optimism for the new hero-shooter, but with a feeling that Crucible is going to have a steep climb ahead of it to make it.

Crucible is the latest F2P hero shooter where teams composed of unique “Hunters,” each with special abilities and weapons, compete against one another in three different game types at launch. Relentless opted out of the “holy trinity” character roles that many games have, so don’t expect to see characters broken up into damage dealers, healers, and tanks. However, hunters will have skills that make them more conducive to those sorts of playstyles.

Each hunter has unique abilities and attacks that make each feel impressively different from the others. Before each match, players will pick from a handful of different possible skills that can be unlocked as they level up, lending to different builds that people can try for. Your character and skill tree are locked in before the game begins and before you know of who you will be facing off against since you aren’t able to swap characters during matches. This can make it tough to plan for the best build for your team, unless you are playing with friends.

During the demo, I became especially fond of the melee-focused Drakoul, who could yank foes him with a hook and bash them with his massive ax, while using the boosters on his back to dash away when things got too hairy. It was a new playstyle to have featured in a third-person shooter, though I admit, there were some foes I had especially tricky times dealing with.

Crucible’s gameplay feels very much like a melding of a MOBA and the reliance of having players increase their level to unlock new abilities by farming random mobs on the map while also combining a hero shooter’s more fast-paced gameplay. Wild inhabitants and fauna, native to the planet Crucible, are found around the arena lending themselves as natural sources of Essence, Crucible’s form of experience points. Hunting these monsters down reminded me of a lot of jungling in the MOBAs of my past. Accumulating Essence is an integral part of the game, as making sure your hunter is adequately leveled up, with as many of their skills unlocked as you can, will be a big part of whether or not you will live through a battle.

Players will be able to do battle in three modes at launch. Before you ready up for a match, you will pick you a hunter and how your skill tree will develop. Once the matches begin, you will be presented with a map of Crucible, where you choose the point you will be dropping at. Some modes have you selecting your drop point, and others you have a drop-leader that will pick a spot for your entire team.

  The first mode is Heart of the Hive that pits two teams of four in a struggle to capture the hearts of giant hives that spawn throughout the map. The first to capture three hearts then wins. Some of my favorite moments from the event were the tense battles between the teams over the hearts, feeling far more like a tense match during a MOBA than in any of the other hero shooters. Each death of a teammate or enemy would put that team down a hunter for nearly 30 seconds, meaning you had to plan out when to use your skills to use them to maximum effect.

The second mode is Harvester Command, where two teams of eight fight over control of five harvester points that are on the map, which slowly tick up each team’s counter. Whoever fills the bar first, with kills and holding harvesters, will win the match. It’s a fairly straightforward affair, and the one I think I had the least fun with. The map was just a bit too big, and the respawn times were a bit too long for this style of gameplay mode. I felt like more of my time was spent trying to get somewhere or find people to fight, than I did actually in combat. It wasn’t bad, and I still had a good time with it, it just didn’t do as much for me.

The last is called Alpha Hunters and this mode has the most unique gameplay mechanic of Crucible that I don’t recall seeing anywhere else. This mode is a small scale battle royal, pitting eight teams of two against one another. When a player is killed, they are out; there are no respawns and no way to call back in your partner. Relentless came up with a genius idea to help out the leftover teammates after their partner dies. When a player who has lost their partner finds another player in a similar situation, they can request a temporary alliance with them, creating a brand new team of two. When there are only three players left, any of these alliances are dissolved, and it becomes a free-for-all. These alliances can also be broken at any time or denied altogether. This new approach brings an all-new take that I would love to see expanded on going forward—perhaps including it in a future free-for-all game type where you could partner with anyone if you so chose. The enemy of my enemy is my friend, after all.

Speaking with Relentless, it became clear that one of the central focuses they had while developing Crucible was to create a competitive title that would make for a pleasant viewing experience on Twitch. A particular example of this that the developers drew attention to was how projectiles are handled. Each bullet and projectile has been given an appearance to make it appear visible during gameplay, letting viewers and players get a better idea of where they are being fired at.

The pacing of the game modes themselves, from how the gameplay flows to the number of characters each mode includes, has been designed around this Twitch-viewer experience mentality. Crucible always weighs this balance between fun for the player and fun for the audience. With such a focus, I asked the team if Crucible would be launching within Twitch integration. They explained that they have some fresh ideas for these but that they would be coming after launch. Nothing is yet set in stone, but some of the ideas they had on this front include allowing the audience to help choose the events that would happen around the map. Events are randomly assigned from a pool, traditionally.

When it comes to monetization, Crucible will include the seasonal battle pass model that has become popular in recent years. The paid version of the battle pass will cost you about $9.50 per season and can be bought using credits, Crucible’s currency, with a free version being offered as well. The free version will net you considerably fewer rewards but for no cost to you. Alongside the pass, players can spend their credits on specific cosmetic items, no loot boxes in sight, with the only stipulation being that the store’s stock will change with different things being featured each day. Relentless has also promised that all new hunters and game modes will be free for all players, no buy-in necessary.

Crucible is releasing missing a few features that I believe will hamper it, especially in the competitive scene, making it almost feel more like an early access release than a full release. The most significant omission is the lack of a Ranked or Casual mode for its game types. In-game voice chat or spectate modes are also missing in this retail release, so players will have to rely on outside programs to communicate vocally with their teammates. For a game with such a competitive and viewer-focused design mentality, the fact that these borderline mandatory features of the genre are to be MIA at launch is puzzling, particularly when you consider just how crowded the field has become.

There were other odds-and-ends that I encountered during my play session that will hopefully be addressed in future updates. One oddity was had to do with the practice mode. While this does give players different areas to test out the various Hunters, if you want to try out a different character, you will need to exit out of the practice mode entirely, change your character, and start up the practice again. A more obtrusive issue was how it appears Crucible currently handles a player’s disconnect when a match is found. A few times during the demo, after players encountered problems with matchmaking, it would kick all players currently matched back to the main menu, having to re-queue up for a match. I hope that this issue will be fixed sooner rather than later, as I could see this becoming a problem and used as an implement by trolls.

Crucible has its work cut out for it if it hopes to excite the competitive Twitch community. The game does have a lot going for it that will help it in this fight, being a fun experience that offers an exciting mix of elements from the MOBA and hero-shooter genres. Since it is a free to play title, it’s an easy sell to your friends to give a try, so long as they have a PC. Encounters in matches are fast-paced and can offer moments of tense excitement and rewards mastery of a hunters skills and playstyles, which will encourage diving into the various hunters. When it comes to the Hunters, the different feel of each means there is a good chance that you will find one that will fit your style.

That being said, Crucible finds itself hamstrung somewhat out of the gate. Without the label of “Early Access” attached, the lacking of ranked matchmaking will be a huge red mark on a title that wants to get into the competitive landscape. It will be challenging to build a competitive community when there isn’t yet a competitive ladder to entice people to refine their tactics or master characters. In terms of content, Crucible is on the leaner side of offerings, launching with only three game modes and ten hunters, another area that could have been made less of an issue had this been an Early Access release instead of the official launch. In comparison, competitors in beta are offering the same number of characters, and Blizzard’s monolithic hero-shooter launched with more than double the choices of characters and more game modes. We know that more modes and hunters are being worked on, so hopefully, these additional offerings will arrive soon after launch.

  My time hunting down enemies and capturing Hive Hearts was memorable, and I look forward to jumping in tomorrow for more matches. I miss my boy, Drakoul, and I’m looking forward to getting better with him while trying out other hunters too.

Crucible launches tomorrow, May 20, 2020, exclusively on PC. You can try it out yourself over on Steam.

May 19, 2020 9:00 AM EST

from EnterGamingXP https://entergamingxp.com/2020/05/crucible-hands-on-preview-amazon-enters-the-hero-shooter-warzone/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=crucible-hands-on-preview-amazon-enters-the-hero-shooter-warzone